Old Pueblo 50 Mile 2009 Race Report

3/7/2009
~52 miles
8:30:21
7th overall out of 124 finishers
Official Website
My Picasaweb Album
Official Results
GPS watch data report

The head wind was killing our gas mileage and had been for the past 100 miles. It was Friday afternoon and Dan, Mom, Matt and I were pulling into the Fleet Feet running store in Tucson, AZ having driven down from northern New Mexico all day. We were there so Dan and I could run in the 20^th Old Pueblo 50 mile trail race south of Tucson. Neither Dan nor I had run in this race before and we were looking forward to running a new course. In fact, Dan had never run a 50 mile race before so this was going to be big for him. Mom and Matt had graciously offered to join us to serve as our crew.

After picking up our race packets we drove out to near the start line at Kentucky Camp, an historic homestead not far from Sonoita, AZ. The wind was blowing, as it had been all day, so we found a relatively sheltered camp area in the valley a mile short of Kentucky Camp in some grass. For dinner we cooked up some tortellini and sauce and hit the sack pretty early opting against a campfire given the strong winds.

4:00am came all too early but I had slept very well so I easily awoke to make my standard pre-race breakfast of one cup of strong coffee and a toasted bagel with cream cheese. As I finished eating my bagel the masses of runners began driving by on the dirt road towards the start line. Dan, Mom, Matt and I arrived at the start line around 5:20am finding time to obtain our cloth bib numbers, drop our drop bags in the appropriate piles and huddle around with friends Ryan, Susan and Nicole waiting for 6:00am to come so we could start running and warm up.

From Old Pueblo 50 Mile Run, Tucson, AZ, 2009-03-07

I opted to start without a headlamp based on the suggestion from my friend David who'd run this race a few times before. I lined up just behind the first row of runners on the start line and wished Dan a good run. At 6:00am sharp we all did the usual hooting and hollering to signal the start of the race and headed off and up the initial 200' climb on the dirt road. I started the race in shorts, no gloves, a visor, sunglasses and a long sleeve shirt over my short sleeve shirt. It was about 30 degrees at the start but no wind so my clothing situation was perfect for me. After starting up the hill, I saw the lead pack already taking off and reacted accordingly by upping my pace and keeping them in sight up the hill. It was dark with no moon but there was already enough ambient light to run without a headlamp. Once we crested the initial hill it was plenty light and we were really off. I ran a few paces behind a runner I didn't know and we were running in about 6^th and 7^th place. We kept a good consistent pace going through the first aid station at mile 3 where I didn't stop and continued on up the hill. At mile 3 we turned off the main dirt road and headed up an old two-track before turning onto some sweet single track along the Arizona Trail. Along this section the sun came up and the scenery was beautiful. I love the desert and at sunrise it was magical. We had to pass through a few cattle gates along this stretch and I even managed to jump over one rather than opening and closing it behind myself. I knew I wouldn't be doing that on the way back over this section later in the day.

I ran into the mile 7 aid station at 1 hour, 2 minutes (1:02) and realized Iwas moving pretty fast. I was feeling good, though, so I made the stop quick picking up a couple gels and my extra hand bottle before continuing downhill on the dirt road. We made a hard right turn onto another dirt road that I nearly missed but volunteer in a truck pointed me in the correct direction. I was getting a bit warm so I pulled off my long sleeve shirt and tied it around my waist. I wouldn't have a chance to drop it off before the aid station at mile 25 where I'd first see my Mom and Matt. At this point I was pretty much running by myself and would continue to pretty much to the end. The run down in this sandy road canyon was great and I ran through a ranch where two dogs were hanging out next to the road. They were very friendly so I took the opportunity to stop to tie my shoes and pet them briefly. Awesome dogs. Further down the road I came to a triangle intersection. The right fork was flagged and the left fork was not so I went right but immediately after that there was flagging going left back towards the left fork. This didn't make sense to me. Why would they flag it to the right and then back left immediately afterwards when they could have just flagged the left fork initially? So I opted to not turn left and stayed right for a bit. After about 100 yards I hadn't seen a flag so I turned back and ultimately got back on track. I rolled into the mile 13 aid station with much relief after second-guessing myself for the last 10 minutes at 1:53. I slammed a packet of Carbboom energy gels and refilled my bottles with water for the climb up to Gunsight pass. As I left the aid station, two other runners came in just behind me so I felt motivated to really push a bit up the climb.

It was getting warm but still nearly perfect running weather as I ascended the pass. I had heard the backside of the pass was very technical and I was looking forward to seeing that and running it as I enjoyed technical running. At the top of the pass I finally had a view towards Tucson as well as the view east that I had much of the morning. Running down the backside was indeed very technical and took some solid concentration to keep from twisting an ankle or tripping. At the bottom of the hill it was more fast dirt road runnning south along the base of the mountain to the aid station at mile 19 at 2:48. I again ate some more Carbboom energy gels and refilled my bottles with water. As I started to leave the station I started to head out on the wrong road and was quickly corrected by one of the volunteers. Another one said, “Head down that way and soon you'll turn left on another road.” There just happened to be a road heading left just a few yards out of the aid station so I jokingly started to head down that road and said, “oh yeah, right here?” and looked back smiling. It took them all a second or two to catch my joke as I headed the correct way.

I felt I was holding a good pace here along the rolling dirt road but looked back at the top of a hill to see another runner behind me—the first I'd seen in many miles. So I stepped up my pace a bit as I passed the end of the dirt road through a gate into some private land for a bit. I could now see the mile 25 aid station and was looking forward to seeing Mom and Matt for the first time since the start. I heard the cowbells beckoning me into the aid station and reached it at 3:43 where I ditched my long sleeve shirt, refilled my water bottle and grabbed a gel flask for the big pull up the hill to mile 29. My goal was to run the entire hill and I set off and did in fact run the entire hill except for a short stint where I had to urinate on the move. This section up the hill was pretty warm and dusty thanks to some decent traffic along the road. As I neared the top of the climb I started to turn left onto the road we had initally turned right onto after aid station at mile 7 but was corrected by another volunteer. This was odd for me since I rarely, if ever, have trouble following a course. I came into the aid station at mile 29 at 4:24 and the woman there said I was in fourth place. I knew that wasn't true and was sure I was in 6^th or 7^th place. I grabbed some more gel and filled up my hand bottles with water and HEED before getting back on the portion of the Arizona Trail we had run in the morning.

I ended up walking a good bit of the climbing on this section and was happy to run down into the aid station at mile 33 at 5:10. Apparently I had a drop bag here but had forgotten about that so I just filled my bottles and kept on going. Leaving this aid station we were back on a dirt road running up a slight incline for a bit before turning left onto a more technical road and down into a drainage complete with an old windmill and some water in the creek. I was still running alone and really enjoying being back in this area on such a beautiful day. As I neared the aid station at mile 40 another runner, Mike, came up from behind. We had leap-frogged a bit since mile 28. I felt I needed to “go see a man about a horse” so I pulled off the course and found a suitable tree and rock to take care of business. Back on track I came up on the mile 40 aid station to the sound of, “Now that's what I'm talking about!” This was a now-familiar sound to me as I have heard this man at a couple of different races in the last year. I gave him the knuckles as I passed by him into the aid station at mile 40 at 6:29. Mom and Matt were here to help me with a quick time through the station so I filled up both hand bottles and grabbed some more gel. One of the station volunteers offered to take a photo of me and Mom so we posed briefly for the photo op.

From Old Pueblo 50 Mile Run, Tucson, AZ, 2009-03-07

From the mile 40 aid station it was a long, gradual grind up a dirt road along a nicely running creek. Mike passed by me again here and we talked briefly. He was from Phoenix and hadn't run this race before either. We informally paced each other along the road and onto some singletrack which led to a technical dirt road and then a crossing over the stream again before some nice singeltrack to the mile 46 aid station. Here, Mike moved out quickly and I tried to keep moving fast too. A quick bottle fill up for the final stretch. A short distance out of the station Mike and I encountered another cattle gate that he graciously left open for me. From here I would barely see him much until the final stretch to the finish. This section to the finish was longer and more difficult than I had expected. We crossed down and through a couple of drainages, climbed a long hill and then paralleled the finish line area running along a mesa top. It was definitely getting warm now and I was ready to be done. My GPS watched beeped mile 50 at 8:20:29 but I was still far enough from the finish that I could not see it. Now I really wanted to finish under 8:30 and was really pushing it and slowly coming back up on Mike. I averaged about 9:00/mile for the last three miles and finally could see the finish line at the top of a small rise. I put my head down and was sprinting as hard as I could towards the finish so I could come in under 8:30. But then I hear the crowd saying, “No, go back, you missed a turn.” Sure enough, I was supposed to go right around a truck instead of left. So I stopped dead in my tracks, rand back and around the truck the correct way to finish in 8:30:21. I probably wouldn't have made it under 8:30 anyway but....

I sat down to my quart of chocolate milk and enjoyed watching a few more finishers before Dan came in at 9:39:40. The post race scene was great...burgers, beer, music, good chat and fine weather. This race was really enjoyable and I hope to make it down there again.

Ghost Town 38.5 Mile Ultra Run Race 2009

1/18/09
38.5 miles
Anywhere between 4,200 and 5,000 vertical feet gained depending on who you ask.
My Picasa Photo Album
Full results
Top 10 finishers, etc. listing


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Admittedly, 38.5 miles is an odd distance for a race. Typical ultras are 50k, 50 miles, 100k, 100 miles and beyond. But 38.5 miles still has a nice ring to it. It’s like a 60k with a bonus mile or so. For the past couple of years I had seen the advertisement for the Ghost Town 38.5 race in Ultrarunning magazine and knew that one of these years I’d check it out. But the 13 miles of pavement involved with the race ultimately kept me from taking a closer look at it. But in the fall of September 2008, my friend and frequent running partner David Coblentz mentioned he was going to give it a try. He also told of the impressive scenery in the area and high chance of good running weather in January in Hillsboro, New Mexico. With my plan of running the Old Pueblo 50 miler in early March 2009, I thought the GT would be a great training run and so I signed up. Then the list of Los Alamos area ultra runners entered in the GT grew and soon there was at least 6 of us heading down there. It was a low-key and enjoyable race for sure. This is how it went down according to me…

Susan, the race director, along with her husband, Matt, have been putting on this race for four years now. My understanding is that the first year was an all-pavement affair (for which I’m glad I missed) but the past three years have all been roughly the same involving an out-and-back course starting and ending with 6.5 miles of pavement with 26.5 miles of dirt road and trail running in the middle. The starting elevation is around 5,300’ with a high elevation of about 7,000’ ( profile from my GPS watch ). Also, for the first three years, this race has been mostly “under the radar” of many ultra runners. That changed this year when some fast dudes showed up including Andy Jones-Wilkins (AJW). Until now the course record had been 6:06:00 set by Albuquerque runner Ed Heller. I hoped to best that time and go under 6 hours and I knew AJW and a few others would likely do the same and finish in front of me. Looking at the list of entrants before the race, I told a friend “I’ll be super happy to finish under 6 hours and finish in fifth place.” As I would later find out, I nailed that prediction.

At 6:00am on Sunday, 72 of us runners all hooted and hollered as we set off from the start line. A relatively warm morning (26 degrees) with no wind and a bright waning moon allowed me to start in shorts, a sleeveless shirt, a light wind jacket and gloves. The pace started out pretty quickly and I went off with the lead pack of six of us—Tim Long, Andy Jones-Wilkins, Bobby Biles, Scott Eppelman, Ed Heller and I. As we topped the first minor hill of the first 6.5 miles of pavement running we were hit with a stiff, cold head wind that lasted until we neared the turn off from the pavement to the dirt road. I was very happy I decided to keep my wind jacket on at the start! The pace was brisk for the first six miles (8:09, 8:25, 7:49, 8:12, 8:12, 8:33) but I knew Ed was a veteran of this race so I figured this was a good, solid pace if he was holding it. But as we chatted he confessed to me that we were going out much faster than he’d ever gone out!

Once we hit the dirt I laid back a bit and dropped back to about 30 seconds behind the main group of five ahead as I didn’t want to over do it too early. Honestly, I hadn’t been training too much through the winter opting instead to do more rock climbing and snowboarding and I really didn’t want to make my all-too-frequent mistake of going out too hard.

The running surface was now a rolling dirt road that was gradually heading uphill. After about two miles of dirt road we hit a very short out-and-back spur to the station 2 aid station where I refilled my single hand bottle with water and grabbed two more gels from my drop bag. My fueling plan was to eat a single gel packet every 30 minutes and drink water as much as I could. In the end, this worked out great. It made for quick aid station stops and was an adequate fuel amount. After this aid station we all started to break up a little bit with Ed and I taking up the rear of the lead group. The road began a steady grind uphill before cresting out and dropping steeply down some 500 vertical feet in about 1.5 miles. OK, so that’s not super steep but compared to what we had been running, it felt steep. I commented to Ed that the hill would be a joy on the return and he said “yeah, but then it’s 9 miles downhill to the finish.” I looked forward to that.


Typical course view and condition. Pretty gorgeous in the Gila National Forest!

At mile 12.7 we all turned left onto the 4 mile round-trip out-and-back spur trail. This was a rugged but beautiful section of the course and definitely my favorite part. It was an old road used to access a mine. The “trail” here obviously sees little traffic these days and crosses a small stream many times. Numerous small, clear pools of water lined the trail and for a short bit we ran along the base of a huge limestone wall complete with a large natural limestone arch! I nearly tripped a couple times as I looked up at this wall and arch considering the climbing possibilities!

As I ascended the last, super technical section of the out-and-back I saw Tim coming back down followed closely by AJW, Bobby and then Scott. I was in fifth position at this turnaround. On the way back down this spur, I made good time as I tend to move pretty well on technical descents and ended up passing Scott to move into fourth position. It was along this section that I saw many of my friends heading out while I headed back. I gave hoots, hollers and/or high fives to David Coblentz, Bill Geist, Tom Stockton, Dan Hadlich and many others. I love out and backs for the very reason of getting to see friends along the way!

Back on the main road we continued heading out to the big turn around. It was rolly with plenty of loose, eroded sections of road to keep my mind in the run. I had been running with my iPod off until this point but with the group broken up and no sight of anyone in front of me or behind me, I turned it on and turned it up for some motivation. For this run I’d be rocking to Silverstein and Strung Out.


Not actually on the course but a good view of the Gila National Forest from Emory Pass the day before the race. Lots of space out there.

At about mile 18 we began a long, technical descent to the turn around at Cave Creek at mile 20.6. Shortly before the turn around I saw Tim and AJW coming at me again not too far apart. Those two were holding it close and I knew it was going to be an interesting finish for them. And just before I reached the turn around Bobby cruised on by me on his way back in too. I took a bit of time at the Cave Creek aid station (station 4) futzing with my jacket and gloves and decided to leave them both there. I picked up a second water bottle here and filled it up thinking I had already poured some HEED drink powder in the bottle but as I left the aid station I realized I had not done that so I had two bottles of water. I promptly poured out half of one bottle as I wouldn’t need that much water to the next aid station. As I began the grind up the technical climb back out of Cave Creek I again saw all my fellow Los Alamos friends and got a boost from their positive comments. I power-walked some bits of the hill climbs and cruised into station 3/5 again to swap out one of my bottles for a bottle that actually did have HEED in it and grab some more CarbBOOM gels.

Leaving station 5 was again a bit of an uphill grind but it was over quickly and I was into more rolling terrain and trying to keep my pace up around 10 minute miles or better and was feeling pretty good. I couldn’t see anyone in front of me but also couldn’t see anyone behind me so I just kept doing what I was doing hoping to hold onto fourth position to the finish. At station 6 I added some more HEED powder to one bottle and filled the other half way with water and got moving again. I didn’t see anyone come in behind me there either. But as I hit the rolling and smooth dirt road out of station 6 and neared the pavement again, I looked back to see a runner coming up fast from behind. I was totally impressed with the speed of this guy! Just before the pavement I stopped to take a leak one last time and the runner coming up from behind passed by me. It was Pete Stevenson looking super strong. Once we hit the pavement I tried to keep up with Pete’s pace but my legs were having none of it. Pete just blasted off into the distance. Pete’s speed gave me some serious motivation and I knew if I could keep pushing hard enough to stay under a pace of 9 minute miles, I could hit my goal time of under 6 hours. I kept pushing and cruised right on past the last aid station, station 7, at mile 34, smiling at the nice and encouraging aid station volunteers. I knew it was going to be close and I didn’t want to stop now. I started to see buildings and knew it wasn’t far. Then I saw the line of cars parked in front of Susan’s house and could hear some clapping and yelling. I ran an 8:30/mile for the final mile to finish in 5:52:15. It felt great to have met my sub-6 hour goal with a race performance that I was very pleased with.

From Ghost Town 38.5 Mile Race, 2009-01-18

The afternoon was spent lounging, drinking four New Belgium 1554 beers, eating the super tasty homemade food and cheering on the rest of the finishers until my friend Minesh finished. This race was his longest ultra to date and he finished in 10:37:ish with a gutsy effort.

An excellent post-race BBQ with a few beers around the campfire topped off a great day of racing.

Full results have not been posted yet but the top ten finishers list has been:

1. Tim Long, 41, CO, 5:21:01
2. Andy Jones-Wilkins, 41, ID, 5:21:06
3. Bobby Biles, 42, NM, 5:43:39
4. Pete Stevenson, 35, CO, 5:45:39
5. Jason Halladay, 34, NM, 5:52:15
6. Scott Eppelman, 42, TX, 6:02:10
7. Marty Duchow, 46, CT, 6:06:41
8. Ed Heller, 46, NM, 6:14:16
9. Paul Grimm, 40, CO, 6:19:30
10. Dave Coblentz, 46, NM, 6:20:54

Urban adventure running in Bellevue, WA

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On Monday afternoon this week I found out I got to go to Bellevue/Redmond, WA to meet with some Microsoft folks for work. I didn't have much time to explore my running options and knew I would have much time to actually run since it was a 36 hour round-trip trip but I did want to get out at least a little bit. My friend Rose contacted her sister and brother in law that live in the area and they made some fine suggestions like Tiger Mountain and Mt. Si. Unfortunately, it turned out I had a couple hours only so I checked Google Maps and saw that my hotel was nice and close to a green space called Bridle Trails State Park. Hey, it was green and had the word "trails" in the name so I figured it would work. And it did.
I ran up there with no more than a hand bottle and a map of the area bike trails folded up in my pocket.
I didn't get out until 3:30pm and knew it would start to get dark around 4:30pm. The run started on paved bike trails along highway 520 and then I found the turn onto the Bridle Ridge Trail that would lead to the park. I got a bit confused by a short detour into a very small wetland area and cruised through that short loop. (Later, I saw on the map that the wetland is right next to the Microsoft West Campus!) Finally on trail, I ran along the northern edge of the Bellevue Municipal Golf Course and then finally hit the northeastern edge of the Bridle Trails State Park.
Once in the park the running was darker because of the tree canopy above and the waning daylight. The trails were sloppy and muddy thanks to heavy horse traffic they evidently receive. Trail intersections were frequent but unmarked and I hadn't a clue which way was which so I just began following small signs that showed a dog print or something. Ironically, it appears dogs aren't allowed in the park? This was fun adventure running as I saw no one else and had no idea where I was going. I eventually popped out on a major road but didn't know where I was. Most of the traffic was going to my right so I went with it until I hit a major intersection at 116th NE St and 60th NE St. Now I could find on the map where I was and voila! I had made a nice little loop through the edge of the park. I headed east on 60th NE until I got back to familiar territory and and cruised on back to the hotel.
It was a great little run of 12 miles in a completely foreign place to me.
Now it's time to check out a Thai place Rose recommended and then read up on the stuff we're supposed to talk about tomorrow at Microsoft. That'll be another adventure, albeit of a much different type.
I'll be back in NM tomorrow night. Yippee!

October 2008 in Review

Seems I'm getting on this old blog about once a month for updates so here's a run down of how I spent my month of October:

• October 1-5: Allison and I traveled to the Grand Canyon with her sister and brother in law where we hiked, camped and even floated down the mighty Colorado River from Glen Canyon Dam to Lee's Ferry.

  From Grand Canyon, AZ, 2008-10-01



• October 10-12: Allison and I drove to Boulder, CO to attend George and Courtney's wedding. It was a beautiful, intimate evening wedding and it even snowed a bit! On the way up to Boulder we managed to get in a few hours of climbing at Shelf Road Saturday morning. Otherwise, it was a drizzly and cool weekend.


• October 17-18: Dan and I had a great time hiking some 13,800'+ peaks in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. The weather was amazing and the hiking fantastic. On Friday we hiked 20 miles and 4,800' vertical up Rio Grande Pyramid and Saturday was a 13 mile, 4,200' vertical day up Half Peak.
  

  From Rio Grande Pyramid, 2008-10-17



• October 25-26: I got out for a nice 13 mile loop run with David Coblentz through Bandelier National Monument.

  From Bandelier Run, 2008-10-25

  After the run I joined Allison, James and Nate at the Dungeon for a bit of climbing. Allison came so close (one small slip) to sending the project she's been working on this month, Gangland, 5.12b.
  
  On Sunday I went up to Sugarite State Park with Bill, Chris, Mark, Minesh and Rose for some enjoyable basalt climbing in a secluded location.

  From Sugarite State Park, 2008-10-26

  
  

It's been a great October so far! November promises to be a great month too with a continuation of great weather in the near future and some great trips planned with friends. Also, my sister and her family will be coming back to New Mexico for bit between moving from Hawaii to the Seattle area so that'll be great too.

Moab Alpine to Slickrock 50 mile race 2008 (and some climbing too!)

9/20/2008
50 miles
11,000' vertical gain, 12,000' vertical descent
10 hours, 42 minutes
Map from my Garmin Watch
Photos from my camera
Photos taken on the course during the race from Sean Cunniff
Photos from Greg Norrander (Pro quality)
Full results



Wow, so it's been weeks since I blogged at 'cha y'all. Sorry for that. It's been a fun few weeks so I hope to write about that soon but for now...I'm sitting here stiff and sore after running the Moab Alpine to Slickrock 50 mile race yesterday. This was my first time running this low-key, high-quality race and I really enjoyed it. If you like easy, flat 50 mile races, this one isn't for you but if you enjoy amazing mountainous terrain with super scenic views of canyonlands, put this race on your calendar for next year!

The pre-race on Friday was very relaxed and small. Only about 45 runners signed up for the race. Allison, Mom and I met up with Sean and Mike (running in his first 50 mile race ever) at the pre-race in Moab on Friday evening and we got the course briefing. It was all very informal and mellow and I really appreciated that. After dinner at Pasta Jays with Mike and Felicia, we drove to a campsite right near the start line at the Pack Creek Picnic Area in the La Sal Mountains. Camping there in the national forest was awesome with a campfire and the waning but bright moon. The only thing not awesome about it was the gigantic patch of goatheads that Allison and I pitched our tent on unknowingly. Well, even after realizing the mistake and adding another beefy tarp under the tent, we both still ended up with deflated Thermarests in the morning. (I later found 17 holes in mine and 6 holes in Allison's.) Nonetheless, I got a good night's sleep and awoke at 4:45am.

It was a warm morning and it was much easier to get out of bed than it often is at higher, colder runs. After downing a toasted bagel and 12oz of coffee I got my growler on and then headed over to the start line a few minutes before 6am. It was a small group of runners and I liked that. I started wearing shorts, sleeveless shirt, a visor, sunglasses, GPS watch and iPod. Also, I made a bold (and perhaps foolish decision) to wear a new pair of La Sportiva Fireblades that I had only run 7 miles in up until race day. The gamble paid off and I really liked the shoes. The low delta-H (10mm) is fantastic. :)

We all got going at 6:00am at the trailhead at 6,400' under the bright moonlight following the Pack Creek dirt road up for a few miles and eventually catching the Pack Creek trail which paralleled a decently deep river gorge on our left. The fall colors were amazing and as we climbed higher I had to take it easy so I wouldn't trip as I looked around to take it all in. The glowing light of the sunrise illuminating the red rock of Canyonlands to the west was phenomenal.

The first part of the course climbs hard from 6,400' to 10,400' in about nine miles to the La Sal 4x4 jeep road crossing through some scenic meadows along the way. From there it was descent on a jeep road and then more single track through some more nicely wooded areas with great views to the valley to the second aid station at Squaw Springs at mile 14. I enjoyed more great single track (and suffered a hard but non-painful digger) on the next section of single track to Oohwah Lake at mile 17. More climbing and more fantastic views summed up the next section of trail to the Geyser Pass aid station at mile 20. Allison and my Mom were crewing for me and were at Squaw Springs, Geyser Pass and Warner Lake and it was great to see them there!



After Geyser Pass came the climb up Burro Pass to the course's highpoint at 11,000+ feet. That was an awesome climb as at one point I looked up to watch the runner ahead of going up the pass and noticed the moon, appearing very large, above his head and above the pass. I wish I had taken my camera! The other side of Burrow Pass was a steep, technical descent that downhill mountain bikers love. I kept myself in check on this knowing I didn't want to beat up my quads just yet. I eventually rambled into the Warner Lake aid station at mile 26 in 6 hours, 5 minutes. I was doing exactly what I wanted to do--go out a decent pace but hold back enough so that I could run more later on the fast dirt roads. I was hoping for negative splits and I ended up with that. (5:50 for the first 25 and 4:52 for the last 25.)

The climb out of Warner Lake to the top of the pass into Miners Basin was an ass-kicker but I had some company (Shane who had just ran the Wasatch Front 100 miler a couple weeks ago) to commiserate on the way up. Shane would go on to finish in 10:01 in second place! On the descent into Miners Basin it rained and hailed on us pretty good for a short bit but that felt nice, actually. The Miners Basin aid station was done up in "saloon style" complete with liquor. I just went for the chicken noodle soup and some water though. From there it was a fast downhill on dirt road to the pave La Sal loop road where we turn left and run uphill on the paved road for a couple miles to the Kokopelli trail turn-off. The paved road kinda sucked but the killer view of Castleton Tower and Castle Valley more than made up for it!

After a quick stop for a bottle refill at the Kokopelli trail turn, I shuffled my way down the Kokopelli trail through the recently burned area. On my way down I passed a guy with a dog on his way uphill and he shouted, "Go Hilltoppers!" I didn't recognize him at all but he obviously knew I was from Los Alamos High School somehow. He would later catch back up to me and explain he had been talking with Allison earlier and that he, David, was from Los Alamos originally. Cool!

Thing started to get warm as I ran onto the Sand Flats Road and aid station at mile 36. I filled both my water bottles and reveled in the thought that the finish was only 14 miles of all downhill dirt road away. I actually managed to run most all of the remaning 14 miles at a decent pace (~9:00/mile) and felt good. I knew my race strategy had paid off as I distanced myself from the runner behind me and passed another runner that had been in front of me. It felt wonderful to actually be feeling good in the final 10 miles of a 50 mile race. That's a rarity for me. One short spur road off the main Sand Flats road was a bit rough as we had to run on a good bit of slickrock and rough terrain (but it was a nice change to get off the main Sand Flats road) and I hit the last aid station at mile 42.

I tanked up on water there, down some more gel and an electrolyte tablet and started going for it. I ran almost all of the final hot, open road to the finish walking only a couple of short uphills. With a few miles to go I took off my shirt as I felt I was overheating a bit. And then, just like that, I rounded a corner and saw the finish line at the Slickrock Bike Trail parking lot and kicked into as high a gear as I had left to finish in 10 hours, 42 minutes which turned out to put me in sixth place overall. I sauntered over to the shade of the CR-V where Allison and Mom had been waiting for me and just collapsed into the chair. It took me a while to get motivated to move but the thought of a shower, food and a beer in Moab was very motivating!



This race is awesome! The last seven miles are pretty brutal but the rest of the course really makes up for it. The low-key style of the race is very appealing to me and the terrain is some of the most scenic I've ever run.

Long week trip coming up!

Hey y'all I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya...
Allison and I are headed out for the week first to Lake Mead, NV for a friend's birthday party on Saturday and Sunday and then on up to City of Rocks, Idaho for a number of days climbing with our friends Rose and Chris. It'll be awesome. On the way, as we drive through Salt Lake City, UT, I'll be stopping to pace my friend David for the last 25 miles of the Wasatch 100 mile trail running race. I've never seen the course so I'm excited to run part of it and support David in this great race. I'll be back online in 9 days or so. Enjoy your holiday weekend.

Here's a great photo Bill took of me climbing Colossus, 5.10c, at sunset in City of Rocks, ID last time we were there.

Taos Up and Over 10k trail run, 2008-08-23

Taos Up and Over 10k
8/23/08
6.2 miles
2,600' vertical
1:04:05
Third overall, second male overall
Full results


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After last week's ascent run at Pikes Peak, I wanted to take advantage of some decent training I'd been doing recently so I headed up to the third annual Taos Up and Over (TUAO) 10k run with Allison, Chris and Rose. Rose and I both had run in the Pikes Peak Ascent last week but Rose was in wave two and had disappointedly been turned around at the A-Frame during the PPA so she was really looking for a finish at Taos.
The TUAO runs 2,600' vertical feet up the ski area and then back down via a course that's all dirt road jeep trails on the mountain. Neither Rose nor I had run it before.

This race was the complete opposite of last week's race on Pikes Peak. For one, the weather today was perfect. Also, the race is super low key and there were probably only 60 runners there. It's also much shorter. :) Just like I like it.

At the 9am start, I started in the front and quickly settled into second position at a comfortable pace. Unfortunately, though, I've come down with a small cold so my lungs were immediately feeling tight and somewhat burning. I was not optimistic about the lungs holding up but as I got higher, they felt better. My strategy was power hike on the steeps and hope those that were running ahead of me would tire out from the inefficient running up steep stuff. After about the first mile I was in fourth position and watched the first female and first male head up looking strong. The runner in third was running up the steep stuff and generally slowing down so I knew it wouldn't be long before I was able to pass him. I passed him just before the first water station where I powered down a gel and cup of water and kept the power hiking alternating with running on the lower angle terrain. At the top of the climb at mile 3 I watched the first male crest over in pursuit of the first female. I hit the top of the climb in 43:52 and hoped I'd catch the runners in front but as I looked down, I couldn't see them and figured I wouldn't catch them. The views of the highest peak in New Mexico, Wheeler Peak (13,161'), were awesome. The descent followed steep jeep roads down that were a bit loose at times so it was challenging. I was still able to run fast down though and held a 6:14 minute/mile pace for the entire 3.2 mile descent. I moved quickly and didn't expect to be caught and didn't expect to catch anyone. That's how it went all the way to the finish--uneventful and pretty quick. I finished in 1 hour, 4 minutes and 5 seconds for third overall, second male overall. For my effort I won a free day lift ticket for Taos Ski Area and now that snowboards are allowed, I'll definitely use it! Rose came in around 1:17ish which was good for third female overall. A very productive day for the Los Alamos runners!

At the start. Beautiful weather!

After the first switchback.

Finish! Note the awesome white balance of this shot. Allison used my chest for the white balancing.

Miles Fitzgerald finishes up around 1:11

Rose finishes in her matching skirt/shoes combo!